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Where’s your straight pride parade?

Jason Pugh Aug 14, 2023

So Twitter user Tidi (@notovogons) woke up to this today.

Yeah. I’d be fucking angry too.

This is disgusting, this is shocking, but the fact that there’s a rise in such incidents is not really surprising. What with politicians like Pierre Poilievre and Danielle Smith posing for pictures like this:

(Smith also posed with him, but one pic here is enough.)

Sure, Poilievre backtracked when being called out. Saying he can’t read or some such BS. But, come on, Poilievre has been campaigning nonstop since he announced he was running to be Prime Minister.

Posing with the guy wearing the “Straight Pride” shirt was no accident. It was 100% on purpose to blow the dog whistle to all the bigots out there.

Poilievre rejects ‘straight pride’ message in controversial Calgary Stampede photo

Speaking to reporters in Penticton, B.C., Poilievre offered a terse response to a question about the T-shirt and its message, which is offensive to many in the LGBTQ community.
“I don’t agree with that shirt,” Poilievre said before moving on to the next question.

As much as I hate to give this guy any attention, this was his response:

At the end of the video, he says that all people should come together, including “all genders.” I’m not sure what HE means by that, but it’s not something he discussed with Poilievre before having his picture taken. The hateful message, again, was in plain sight, and Poilievre CHOSE to have that image out there.

So with Poilievre and Smith proudly posing with such hate and the Higgs government here in New Brunswick playing political games with Policy 713, it’s not surprising to see a rise in such crimes as Tidi woke up to today.

Minister was angry and rude at meeting about LGBTQ-policy review, student says

Here’s a recent interview with Minister Bill Hogan:

So why do I say it’s unsurprising to see a rise in hate-related crimes? It’s because I speak from experience.

You see, back in the mid-late 1990s, here in Fredericton, New Brunswick, the issue of Gay Pride was in the news—a lot.

The then-mayor, Brad Woodside (who has since done a complete 180 and is an ally to the LGBTQIA2+ community), was refusing to sign the proclamation for Gay Pride Day.

A simple, standard procedure for the mayor. He signed proclamations for all kinds of “days” for the city. But he refused to sign it for this one issue.

That led to headlines, letters to the editors and with all that hate and division, violent crimes against members of the LGBTQ2I+ community increased.

One friend was beaten so severely on his way home from work one night that he required facial reconstruction surgery.

I even wrote a letter to the editor about it at the time.

So today, I got a membership to the Telegraph Journal and went back through the archives to see if I could find the story about my friend and my letter to the editor.

Well, I found more than just that. Because around that same time, there was another bashing that made headlines.

A University of New Brunswick student named Rober Peterson was walking home at 2:30 AM on Sunday, May 07, 1999, when he was attacked.

Here is the story:

Source: The Daily Gleaner

The following Friday, a candlelight vigil was held:

Source: The Daily Gleaner

(I recognize some of those faces.)

Former politician, Len Poore, had this to say:

In part, I agree with what Mr. Poore said. That all the media hype was part of the problem. However, I also think he just wanted to brush things under the rug and ignore it. I added this to show what the “conversation” was generally like in the “Letters to the Editor” section of The Daily Gleaner back then.

Then, on Sunday, November 21, 1999, my friend Majella Comeau and his co-worker were attacked as they were walking home:

“Newly elected Mayor Sandy DiGiacinto said despite the recent beatings he doesn’t think Fredericton has a gay bashing problem.
“There’s no doubt that people have been assaulted, and that gay bashing may or may not be involved in these cases,” DiGiacinto said. “Weve had a couple of assaults that have been given a lot of publicity and it is not indicative of the way people in this city live. It’s been blown way out of proportion.””

So, this was just six years after Comeau’s brother, Michel, died after succumbing to injuries from being attacked for being gay.

These were just the two most recent bashings. Yet the police and mayor didn’t want to admit that Fredericton had a gay bashing problem.

After hearing of what happened to my friend and seeing the response in the newspaper, I wrote a letter to the editor that actually got published:

Only to receive this response a week later from Esther Kingston of Fredericton Junction, N.B.:

So Esther said it’s unfair to blame Christians (I did not blame all Christians in my letter) beliefs for recent attacks and then went on to say that true Christians teach their children to hate sin such as homosexuality.

Screw you, Esther.

So, why did I make this post? Well, having lived through that period in Fredericton, I know firsthand that the rise in violence coincided with the politics of hate/intolerance, which led to headlines and letters to the editor.

So that’s why I can say you can draw a straight line between this:

And this:

This wasn’t back in 1969 in the streets of New York.

These were bashings here in the streets of Fredericton a little over 20 years ago.

So, to people who ask “Where’s my straight pride” you’ll get the same response from me as you have from so many others – just be thankful you don’t fucking need one.

JP

Jason Pugh

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